[6]: 1 [7][8] One of their ancestors John Cobbe (1859–1944) owned a general store in Feilding, became a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Oroua and later a sheep farmer.

[11] From 1994 all three brothers were partly home schooled in Feilding by their mother and were given piano lessons but taught themselves to play their other instruments.

[7] Dann observed, "It started as a little room and then we needed to fit the drum kit in so we had to bust down another wall... Our parents put up with a lot but they're very tolerant.

[6]: 1  Campbell, as their manager, conferred with her mentor John Woodruff who signed the group to his publishing company, Rough Cut.

[6]: 1  The New Zealand trio's five-track EP, Oil & Water, independently released on 13 January 2003, resulted in the band's first Australian concert tour – funded by Triple J.

[1] The group performed at SXSW in March 2003, Rodel Delfin of Hits Daily Double, listed them as one of 50 acts to see.

[6]: 1  In August of that year the trio appeared on the cover of New Zealand Musician, following success in "Project NZM" – a promotion by radio station ZM to gain awareness for up-and-coming bands.

[25] For the album the trio worked with Jones (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Whiskeytown) and John Alagía co-producing with Jon.

Dreams differed from Evermore's earlier "retro-sounding, riff-based pop-rock" works, and instead contained a more "spacious" sound according to Jon.

[35] The title track is a 45-minute documentary on the history of the group, followed by a 70-minute live performance recorded at The Metro Theatre, Sydney and a selection of their music videos.

[26][27] Real Life was initially recorded on the Central Coast, New South Wales, where the band spent three months.

Michael Dwyer of The Age was unimpressed with Real Life, "a roller-coaster of intense gestures and hollow sentiments spiralling on an updraft of crashing cymbals and synthetic harmonies" which provides "sheer, overwrought drama... [that] aims for U2 but ends up Big Country.

"[42] Sputnikmusic's DaveyBoy rated it at 2.0 and declared, "Three hit singles and pretty much nothing else on this lazy, uninspired & disappointing follow-up.

"[43] Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald found it lacked ambition and "you suspect this is exactly what it was meant to sound like".

"[44] The album's release was followed by a tour of New Zealand and Australia in September and October 2005 with support acts Bob Evans and the Vagrant City Scandal.

The trio opened for a reformed Split Enz on their tour of Australian state capitals in June 2006 starting at Brisbane Entertainment Centre (BEC) and included Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne and ended at Burswood Dome, Perth.

[45][37] Jack Langridge and Brett Collingwood of Rave Magazine caught their performance at BEC, "[their] affinity with Coldplay's stadium-friendly, atmospheric rock is instantly recognisable in this cavernous setting..." and found Dann's drumming to be a "major highlight".

[47] Early in 2007, the band played at the Big Day Out,[48] as well as at the 21st Australian Scout Jamboree and on 29 April they appeared at the 2007 MTV Australia Video Music Awards to perform "Light Surrounding You".

[49] Otago Daily Times' Shane Gilchrist observed, they "mixed classic rock histrionics (perhaps minus the guitar solos) with the pulsating textures of modern electronica.

[6]: 2 [26][27] Its lead single and title track "Follow the Sun", was used by HBO United States in promotion for the station's 2013 season and also appeared in the worldwide trailer for DreamWorks Animation's The Croods.

[6]: 2  While still a member of Evermore, Dann started working as a producer on Lisa Mitchell's first two EPs Said One to the Other (August 2007) and Welcome to the Afternoon (May 2008); he then re-recorded material for her debut studio album, Wonder (July 2009).

[64][65] Mitchell declared that working with Dann provided "versions [that] had more energy and were a lot lighter – they were positive and uplifting".

[64] He co-produced and co-engineered (with M-Phazes) the lead single, "I Said Hi" (April 2018) from Amy Shark's debut album, Love Monster (July).

[71][72] Jon co-wrote "Be Alright" (June 2018) with the singer Dean Lewis, which appeared on APRA billion streams list in 2019.

[73] Besides being a mult-instrumentalist and singer Peter provides artwork, photography, graphic design, music video direction, cinematography and other promotional material.

[5][74] At the 2022 ARIA Music Awards Peter was nominated for Best Video as director for Luude's cover version of "Down Under" featuring original singer Colin Hay.